An article in the Malawi Nyasa Times reports that the Institute of Public Opinion and Research (IPOR), donated tree seedlings worth MK6.6m to communities around the Zomba and Malosa Forest Reserves. The seedlings will be donated to villages in Traditional Authorities (TAs) Malemia, Mlumbe, Nkula, and Sub TA Nkapita in Zomba and Machinga Districts. This donation is a result of an IPOR, Ohio State University, Vanderbilt University, and IFPRI research project titled “Gender, Deliberation, and Natural Resource Governance: Experimental Evidence from Malawi,” which aims to investigate the impact of women’s groups on environmental governance discussions. The study’s early findings suggest that “women’s relative influence in group deliberations increase when there are more women in the group” and, in turn, increases both women’s aggregate influence and the likelihood that any given woman will influence group deliberations.
